Comments on: Combination Wood Stove and Gas fired Boiler?

By: diSota

diSota — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:33:11 +0000

There are kits available, to do just as you asked. The tubes are pre-bent stainless steel, c/w compression fittings, there are allowances made for pressure regulation, expansion, pumps, tempering valves and a mulitude of gizmo’s.

It has been a few years, since my interest in such things urged me to seek answers, they were on the internet, but I could not be precise…sorry! start at: radiantcompany.com a lot of the parts were there…because of there similar applications

By: michael g

michael g — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:54:41 +0000

Without a pump the water will boil in the pipe and explode from the pressure. To do this right, you’ll need a pump, a relief valve, and an expansion tank. Since the heat source has no control over its temperature it puts a danger factor of overheating the water in the system. Is it worth it to jeopardize your home owners’ insurance?

By: Bob G

Bob G — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:12:29 +0000

Be careful running a water loop thru a wood fire,,, a water boiler is exactly that.. a water boiler, not a steam boiler. If you cannot control the heat input to the water in the pipes, it can flash to steam,,,, that could get ugly..Water boilers do have a safety pop off valve that will release at 30 PSIG.. Hope yours has been tested and working…

By: Capt

Capt — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:39:23 +0000

You have an interesting idea but not completely logical. As hot anything rises YES you need a pump. Is the boiler hot water or steam…makes a big difference.
I wouldn’t mess with it if its steam…too high a temperatures involved.

A better idea might be to run copper pipe around the top of the wood burner and perhaps the flue pipe to the chimney. No direct fire and with a pump the pipe will stay cool enough to stay safe, and you will preheat the water.

Question to benefit is you REALLY need to run the pump all the time the wooder is fired.

Could also rig up a 55 gallon barrel and next to the wooder but you would need to maintain some kind of positive flow and I don’t know how without firing up a pump.